Page 198 of Five Mountain Daddies

I stand up and flex a little. “I’ll make her be pleasant, orelse.”

She laughs and gets out of bed. “My hero.” She kisses me on the cheek and we head out together, holdinghands.

* * *

We stopat three bars before we finally find her mom’s car. It’s parked behind this beat-up place called the Irish Rover. It looks like it was probably nice thirty years ago, but neglect has really let it go to seed. There are two other cars in the parking lot, and I’m guessing this is the only bar in the area willing to serve her thisearly.

“You sure you want to do this?” Cora asksme.

“I’m sure. Come on, we have to helpher.”

Cora sighs, but doesn’t argue. We climb out of my car and head over toward thebar.

I go in first. The inside is dimly lit and is supposed to look like an Irish pub, but really it just looks like a sad and lonely shrine to drinking. The floors are sticky, everything is old and grungy, and a few older regulars are stacked up at the bar, heads down, not talking much to eachother.

Cora’s mom is sitting at the end of the bar, leaning in toward an older man with a thick beard. He’s talking and she’s got this smile on her face that basically telegraphs her desire to get fucked sideways. The guy seems oblivious though, and as we get closer, I realize that he’s talking aboutmotorcycles.

Cora’s mom looks up as we approach, and her whole demeanor changes. The guy doesn’t notice this, either. Cora stays behind me as weapproach.

“What are you doing here?” she snaps. “Got some more gang members looking to killme?”

The bearded guy looks up, surprised. He mumbles something and gets up, walking away from the conversation. That doesn’t surprise me. The guy probably survives by avoiding confrontation, and he can probably smell the fight coming in theair.

“I’m sorry that happened,” I say to her. “I couldn’t haveknown.”

“No? I think you’re a damnliar.”

“Mom,” Cora says, stepping up beside me. “It’s true. He was almost killed, just likeus.”

“I don’t believe you. Girl, I can see how obsessed you are with him, don’t you see it? He’s got you wrapped around hisfingers.”

Cora shrinks back from her mother, but I won’t let her bully me. “Mrs. Lewis, please,” Isay.

“Call me fucking Salina, okay?” she says to me. “You’re a grown man, out getting folkskilled.”

“Nobody got killed,” I say softly. “All thanks toyou.”

She scoffs at that. “Just hit the fucker and ran away. I didn’t saveanyone.”

“Mom, you saved me,” Cora says. “If you hadn’t done that, Jaxson would have killedme.”

“It was brave, Salina,” Isay.

“Fuck brave.” She swallows her wine in a single gulp. “I don’t need fuckingbrave.”

“Doesn’t matter. When the time came, you did what you had to do,” I tell herseriously.

“And then I ran.” She meets my gaze. I can tell she’s a little drunk, but not so drunk that she doesn’t know what she’s saying. “I hit that guy and I ran, leaving my daughterbehind.”

It shouldn’t surprise me, but the pain in her voice digs down deep. Cora steps closer to her. “Mom, it’s okay,” shesays.

“It’s not okay. I’m a failure. Don’t you see that? I’m a drunk and I almost left my baby to die.” She looks down at the bar. “You’re all I got left,Cora.”

“Mom.” She walks over to her mother and wraps her arms around her. “I’m not goinganywhere.”

I leave them like that. I move halfway down the bar, giving them some space, and order a soda. One of the locals gives me a toothy smile but I don’t smile back, and that ends the potentialconversation.

Looks like Cora completely misunderstood her mother. She probably assumed that her mother was just going to get angry at us for trying to pull her out of her drinking, but that’s not even it. Her mother was ashamed for running that day, for leaving Cora behind, but she doesn’t need to be. She saved Cora’s life, and although she didn’t stay behind, she still did something hard. I don’t blame her one bit for running. Your mind doesn’t work right when it’s under stress like that, and it takes real training to be able to keep yourself cool in a life-threateningsituation.

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